Trigger Factors in Transfusion Medicine, Vol. 31

Transfusion medicine is an excellent way for the healthy community to help the sick. However, service providers and patients have much to gain from the establishment of guidelines concerning when and how it is used. An important first step would be to introduce informed consent for transfusion recipients. Discussions with blood banks and assessment of clinical demand would also be necessary, taking into account the needs of patients and physicians, and the availability of products. Unfortunately, the efficacy and safety of transfusion products can be difficult to ascertain. Furthermore, although major advances have been made in safety, the risks of giving and receiving blood are still seen as high.
It is vital to learn what underlies that perception and how to counter it. The policies and prools used to establish surgical criteria for blood transfusions should be explored. Finally, clinical audits can help evaluate the risk:benefit ratio of transfusion; they may be carried out by hospital transfusion committees but are likely to be more successful with the support of national and international legislative and regulatory bodies. The implementation of appropriate initiatives now will improve the outlook for the future of transfusion medicine, perhaps with ex-vivo expanded haemopoietic cell therapy as the next milestone.
All these key points and controversies are explored in this book, which paints a broad picture of the current status and future trends in transfusion medicine.

Transfusion medicine is an excellent way for the healthy community to help the sick. However, service providers and patients have much to gain from the establishment of guidelines concerning when and how it is used. An important first step would be to introduce informed consent for transfusion recipients. Discussions with blood banks and assessment of clinical demand would also be necessary, taking into account the needs of patients and physicians, and the availability of products. Unfortunately, the efficacy and safety of transfusion products can be difficult to ascertain. Furthermore, although major advances have been made in safety, the risks of giving and receiving blood are still seen as high.
It is vital to learn what underlies that perception and how to counter it. The policies and protocols used to establish surgical criteria for blood transfusions should be explored. Finally, clinical audits can help evaluate the risk:benefit ratio of transfusion; they may be carried out by hospital transfusion committees but are likely to be more successful with the support of national and international legislative and regulatory bodies. The implementation of appropriate initiatives now will improve the outlook for the future of transfusion medicine, perhaps with ex-vivo expanded haemopoietic cell therapy as the next milestone.
All these key points and controversies are explored in this book, which paints a broad picture of the current status and future trends in transfusion medicine.

Booknews

Twenty papers look at the factors and contributing circumstances that determine when the blood transfusion process begins, and the wide variations from culture to culture, country to country, and institution to institution. They revolve around the overall themes of demand and supply, product qualities and characteristics, transfusion policies and clinical practice, and the evaluation and feed-back of transfusion policies. Among specific topics are legislative and regulatory impacts, surgical criteria, the clinical relevance of clotting factor characteristics, factors defining the clinical needs for supportive hemotherapy, and how much informed consent for recipients is enough? Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Smit Sibinga, C. Th. (Red Cross Blood Bank, Noord-Nederland); Das, P. C. (Red Cross Blood Bank, Noord-Nederland); Snyder, E. L. (Yale-New Haven Hospital)

Most of the contributors are from international health organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and universities in the U.S., the Netherlands, the U.K., and Canada. Institutions prominently represented include Red Cross Blood Bank-Groningen and Baxter Healthcare Corp.